a little bit of christmas

Back in December I promised a whole slew of posts about the presents I crafted this year, and I’m sorry to say I don’t have much to show. Don’t get me wrong– I painted, sewed, silk screened, and knitted my heart out all month long, and documented every bit of it– but things didn’t go quite according to plan. A few days after Christmas our house was broken into, and three pillowcases of expensive items and one camera bag made it out. While it’s not fun to have to replace things you’ve spent a lot of time working and saving for, it’s even harder to deal with the loss of things that can’t be replaced (especially when they only have sentimental value). It was a learning experience, to say the least.

My mom was kind enough to take pictures of a couple of the things I gifted this year, so although it’s just a small selection of what I worked on, at least it’s something!

This is my lovely sister, Bonnie, modeling a Jul hat in two colorways. After both of my sisters and my mom chopped their locks off, I knew I’d be knitting them warm winter hats to compensate for their lack of hair. I’ve been a fan of Wiksten for quite a while, and was eager to try out a couple of Jenny’s patterns. While the delicate, almost lacy qualities of this hat are a perfect fit for Bonnie and my mom, my goofy sister Savannah required something a little less elegant. She got a chunky, seafoam green Ribbstickad Hat with a giant pom-pom on top. This one took only a few hours to knit and is a great pattern for any beginner knitter.

I also threw together a few simple, beaded necklaces on bronze chains. Shown here are agate and amazonite, flanked by tiny, bronze cube beads. These look fantastic on their own or layered with other necklaces.

Hopefully I’ll manage to photograph a few more of my creations, but either way, I’ll have some new posts up relatively soon. I’ve made it out of my post-burglary slump and I’ve got lots of ideas for future projects. I may be using borrowed cameras and cobbling together posts on my iphone for the time being, so bear with me.

Now, some anti-theft tips!
– Record the serial numbers of every device you own, and put that list somewhere safe. Although we didn’t have the foresight to do this, a lot of the things that were stolen were online purchases, so it wasn’t too hard to track a lot of this information down. Pawn shops log these, and the police monitor those logs, so this helps your chances of recovering stolen property (and proving it’s yours).
– This is free, anti-theft software you can install on your computer or smartphone. You can activate it online and use it to lock your stolen item, take a picture of the thief, or access location data, among other things. We only had this installed on one of the stolen items, but it immediately allowed us to recover it.
– If you have valuables you don’t need frequent or immediate access to, keep them in a safety deposit box. We qualified for a free one when we got a mortgage, and didn’t get around to signing up for it until it was too late. If you don’t qualify for a free one, they’re usually not more than $40 a year, which is not too steep a price to pay for keeping your things safe.